Can You Get Skin Cancer from UV Nail-Drying Lamps?

OK, those UV lamps at the nail salon that help dry your mani more quickly are admittedly one of our favorite inventions of the entire last century — but the more we learn about UV light exposure and skin cancer, the more nervous we get. Temporary sigh of relief: new research suggests that while those lamps do emit UV-A radiation, the risk is relatively minor.

In a new letter in JAMA Dermatology, researcher Lyndsay R. Shipp, MD, of the Division of Dermatology at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, describes a small study she and her colleagues recently completed: They tested 17 drying lamps from 16 different salons and did find that the higher the wattage of bulb used, the more UV-A radiation was emitted, but that you’d have to get an awful lot of manis to get any DNA damage — and therefore, the risk for cancer seems small.

Still, the authors suggest sticking to the conclusions drawn from previous research — when you go in for a mani, bring your own lotion with sunscreen and make sure your technician applies it before putting on that nail art.